About Speech Technology

Speech Technology has been rapidly improving in the past 5 years due to the increase in speed and power of consumer computing products.  At Hands Free Poker, we have been through various third-party vendors for speech recognition but have settled on the built-in Windows engine.  This engine was started when Windows XP was around and had OK, but not great performance.  This is one of the major reasons Hands Free Poker chose not to support Windows XP with voice recognition because the engine is old and Windows does not support Windows XP anymore.

Since then, Windows revamped their speech engine in Windows Vista and Windows 7 and now offers an extremely robust and accurate voice recognition engine.  Be sure to read about  many of the other exciting things you can do with Windows Voice Recognition or view the Speech Reference Card from Microsoft as well.  This voice recognition engine comes with almost all versions of Windows we have come across with a small caveat for certain Dutch versions of Windows where the voice engine is sold separately.

Other speech recognition software that we have tested and is highly recommended is Dragon Naturally Speaking.  Dragon has been around since 1982 and is the leader in third-party voice recognition software.

It is important to note that their are various factors to get the most out of your voice recognition system including quality of headset/microphone, volume level of the device, and noise in the room.  You can read more about these factors on our ‘Speech Recognition Hands Free Poker Tips’ page.  At Hands Free Poker you will find we sell only top of the line headset/microphone combinations to allow for the best possible voice recognition.  If you are having trouble getting Windows Vista or 7 to recognize your voice, most likely you have one of the aforementioned settings off a bit.